From Rise of Protestantism in France to Publication of the Institutes - James Aitken Wylie

Paris during his absence. There was a new light in
the sky of France: a new influence was stirring in
the minds of men. The good bishop thirsted to taste
the new knowledge which he saw was transforming
the lives and gladdening the hearts of all who
received it. He had known Lefevre before going to
Rome, and what so natural as that he should turn to
his old friend to tell him whence had come that
influence, so silent yet so mighty, which was
changing the world? Lefevre put the Bible into his
hands: it was all in that book. The bishop opened
the mysterious volume, and there he saw what he
had missed at Rome -- a Church which had neither
Pontifical chair nor purple robes, but which
possessed the higher splendor of truth and holiness.
The bishop felt that this was the true Spouse of
Christ.
The Bible had revealed to Briconnet, Christ as
the Author of a free salvation, the Bestower of an
eternal life, without the intervention of the
"Church," and this knowledge was to him as
"living water," as "heavenly food." "Such is its
sweetness," said he, "that it makes the mind
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